1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat including a seat pad for elastically supporting an occupant, and an air bag (a member that jumps out of the seat pad while partially pushing the seat pad aside) in a seat.
2. Description of Related Art
As this type of vehicle seat, there has been known a vehicle seat including a seat cushion, and a seatback rising from the seat cushion (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-25361 (JP 2012-25361 A)). In this vehicle seat, the seatback includes a seat frame (a generally arch-shaped frame body) that forms a seat framework, a seat pad made of foam resin and provided in the seat frame so as to elastically support an occupant, a seat cover that covers the seat pad, and an air bag. The air bag is a sack body that expands due to inflow of air, and is attached to the seat frame so as to be placed on a seat-side portion and a back side of the seat pad.
Further, the seat pad is a generally rectangular member forming a seat outer shape, and includes a sack-body passing portion (corresponding to a jump-out portion). The seat pad is configured such that its center in a width direction is flat so that an occupant can sit thereon, and a side portion of the seat pad (that part of the seat pad which is adjacent to the center of the seat pad in a seat width direction) projects toward a sitting side, which attains an excellent occupant support characteristic. Further, the sack-body passing portion is a hole portion penetrating through the seat pad in its thickness direction, and the sack-body passing portion is opened between the center of the seat pad and the side portion. In the technique as known in the art, at the time of a vehicle collision or the like, the air bag jumps out of the side portion of the seatback so as to protect a lateral side of the occupant. The air bag that expands at this time passes through the sack-body passing portion while pushing the side portion of the seat pad aside, and then jumps out of the seat by partially breaking the seat cover.